Treatment Action Campaign Statment, 24 January 2002
SUMMARY OF RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED AT THE TAC NEC+ MEETING - 19/20 JANUARY 2002
On 19/20 January 2002 the TAC National Executive Committee met with TAC
staff and representatives of key allies in civil society to discuss our
objectives and a strategic plan for 2002. The meeting reflected the growth
of TAC through its campaigns in 2001, with participants from six of South
Africa's nine provinces, as well as representatives from the labour
movement, health, religious, NGO and CBO sectors.
The following resolutions were agreed upon.
1.National Treatment Plan
TAC will step up its campaign for the government to develop and adopt a
national HIV/AIDS treatment plan. To this end, it will campaign for 100%
coverage of treatment for people with HIV/AIDS who utilise the private
health sector by the end of 2002. TAC received a report of complaints
received by the AIDS Law Project regarding limited benefits offered by one
of South Africa's biggest medical aid schemes, Discovery Health, and
endorsed a proposal for legal action on behalf of these clients. TAC will
also consider joining this case.
The TAC will discuss the convening of a national treatment conference in
May 2002 with some of its allies. In the meantime, TAC will
* continue to campaign for expanded access to anti-retroviral therapy
according to the strict principles set out in the Bredell Consensus
Statement;
* continue its research on the economics of a national treatment plan and
the economic and social benefits of treating people living with AIDS with
appropriate medicines; and * begin to campaign for drastic reduction in
the prices of essential diagnostic tools needed in the management of HIV,
such as PCR and viral load tests.
2.Mobilisation and Advocacy
TAC supports the call made by the ANC for voluntarism to improve peoples'
lives. In particular, TAC will, during the month of April, mobilise it's
supporters in voluntary activities that aim to improve health care
services.
TAC recognises that preventing HIV and treating AIDS also requires support
for programmes that aim to alleviate poverty. In this respect, TAC agreed
to a request to organise a march in Cape Town on 20 February 2002- Budget
Day- to call for a basic income grant.
TAC noted that in August 2002, the African Union will be launched in Cape
Town. TAC believes that the building of a Pan African treatment access
movement is a priority and will use the launch of the African Union to
convene a meeting of African treatment activists in Cape Town. 3.Legal
action and litigation
TAC believes that in spite of the price reductions on many essential
anti-retroviral medicines that occurred in 2001, these medicines remain
exorbitantly priced and, therefore, unaffordable for sustained and
widespread use in developing countries. We believe that competition in
the market for essential medicines is vital to the reduction of prices.
We have instructed our attorneys to examine legal strategies to obtain
compulsory licences on essential medicines. In the short term, we will
support the complaint made by the Indian generic pharmaceutical company,
CIPLA, against GlaxoSmithKline and Boehringer Ingelheim at the Competition
Commission. Further details of this strategy will be announced in due
course. TAC regrets the government's decision to appeal against the
Pretoria High Court judgement on mother-to -child HIV transmission
prevention (mtctp). While it is agreed that the judgement raises
important constitutional questions-this was the whole basis of TAC's case
- we do not believe that it will succeed and are concerned that the time
taken by the appeal will ultimately be measured in the wasted lives of
infants born with preventable HIV infection. To this end, we make two
calls :
* The government announced a national consultation to review the mtctp
programme. The date for this consultation needs to be announced urgently
and we ask the government to recommit itself to making this consultation
inclusive and to abide by its recommendations. * In its court papers, the
government accepted the safety and efficacy of Nevirapine. We, therefore,
appeal to the government not to oppose the application that will be
launched by the TAC for the execution of orders of Judge Chris Botha that
doctors be allowed to prescribe Nevirapine outside of pilot sites where
capacity for HIV testing and counselling exists and where there has been
consultation with the Medical Superintendent.
TAC believes that there is sufficient scientific evidence to support the
efficacy and safety of the prescription of anti-retrovirals to victims of
rape. We call for an end to the persecution of doctors who are guided by
their ethical duty to act in the best interests of their patients. We
call on the government to abide by the consensus in medical science and to
allow and facilitate the prescription of these medicines where the
informed consent of a rape victim has been obtained. Although TAC can look
back on 2001 with pride and point to significant victories in our
campaigns, the greatest challenges remain ahead. According to the Medical
Research Council, nearly six million South Africans live with HIV/AIDS and
the need to improve health services and access to medicines for these
people, as well as for people with other preventable illnesses, remains
great. We call on government, the business sector, churches, trade unions
and all of civil society to unite behind this objective.
Issued by Mark Heywood
TAC National Secretary
On behalf of the TAC national Executive Committee
24 January 2002